Nominee Obama reaches out as Clinton camp maneuvers

Democratic presidential nominee Sen.Barack Obama today reached out to mend fences with his defeated rival as Republican opponent John McCain tried to frame the fall campaign on his own terms.

Sen. Barack Obama

Sen. Hillary Clinton was angling to become Obama's running mate and her aides ramped up the speculation on that matter today. "I think a lot of her supporters would like to see her on the ticket," Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said. But Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs cautioned "there is no deal in the works."

Clinton has yet to acknowledge Obama's victory in the bruising Democratic race and her aides -- also dodging that conclusion -- said on the morning talk shows that she would take a few days to decide what comes next for her. Obama spoke by phone with her Tuesday night and both sides predicted he and Clinton would sit down together before long.

"When the dust settles and it makes sense for her, he'll meet whenever she wants to," Gibbs said. "She's accumulated a lot of votes throughout this country. We want to make sure that we're appealing to her voters."

On the final night of the primary season, Clinton won South Dakota on Tuesday while Obama took Montana -- and a slew of party superdelegates who declared their support to help him clinch the nomination. He did it, according to The Associated Press tally, based on primary elections, state Democratic caucuses and support from superdelegates. It took 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination at the convention in Denver this summer, and Obama had 2,154 by the AP count.